Description

Akinator is described as a "web genius", but that might be mistranslation from the French génie; he manifests on the player's screen as a genuine djinn, claiming telepathic powers to suss out any character the player is thinking of. Actually, these characters are arrived at by Akinator asking the player a series of questions, answerable on a 5-way spectrum from definite yesses and nos on the ends to an "I don't know" in the middle.

If Akinator already knows the individual, real or fictitious, that the player is thinking of, then truthful answers (both from the player and from previous players -- who taught Akinator what traits that character displayed!) will invariably lead Akinator there. Akinator doesn't actually have supernatural powers, but as Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."